Who Won the Week? is a regular column that will outline and discuss three winners and losers from the previous week. The author of this column is Kenny Ocker (@KennyOcker), an Oregon-based sportswriter best known for his willingness to drive (or bike!) anywhere to watch a basketball game.

WINNER: Chicago State

The Cougars found themselves a home. Amid the constant turmoil found during this extended period of conference realignment, Chicago State has managed to go from the schedule conglomerate of the Great West to an actual conference in the WAC. (Let’s ignore the fact that the WAC would lose its automatic bid if the historically black university didn’t join its ranks.) Granted, the Cougars are 0-8 in Division I play this season, but their campus lies atop a recruiting hotbed, and they could easily snag many a player who falls through others’ cracks, especially now that they offer the same chance at an automatic NCAA Tournament bid that about 250 other schools promise every season. This move makes sense for both parties, but it should help save Chicago State from the fate of Winston-Salem State, another HBCU that tried to make the move to Division I but failed before retreating back to Division II.

(Related winners: The WAC. Related losers: None.)

LOSER: Florida State

Hamilton Hasn’t Been Smiling Much This Season (Photo Credit: Glenn Beil / Democrat).

The Seminoles have had an extended run of success in the Atlantic Coast Conference, one unseen for that program since the Hugh Durham era in Tallahassee, but that’s threatening to fall apart in Leonard Hamilton’s 11th season roaming the Florida State sidelines. FSU is currently riding a three-game losing streak, and last week’s losses to Mercer and Florida were both ugly in their own ways. Falling 61-56 to a team from the Atlantic Sun is ignominious in its own right, but especially so for a team riding a school-record four-year NCAA Tournament streak. Having only one player score more than seven points in the process is even worse. But the Seminoles actually managed to one-up that loss with an embarrassing 72-47 loss to rival Florida, this time where no Florida State player scored more than 10 points. Michael Snaer, the scoring guard who helped lead the team to three wins in the last two years in the NCAA Tournament, scored 17 points between the two games on 5-of-17 shooting while having five assists and seven turnovers. This is foreboding for a team many picked to finish in the top half of an ACC that has often looked lackluster during the start of the season.

(Related winners: Florida; Mercer, but more so had the Bears not gotten shelled by Denver later in the week. Related losers: The ACC, Snaer.)

WINNER: Greg Gantt

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Holidays, travel and other nonsense got the best of us for a couple of weeks, but the RTC Podcast is back in action with a look back at the first few weeks of the season. As always, Shane Connolly (@sconnolly114) hosts our discussion which includes this week a discussion of the top four teams in the polls, some of our hits-and-misses from the preseason, and a look at some of the surprising teams of the first month of action.

This full podcast will suffice for this week but we’ll back with our regular schedule next week, with a full podcast on Tuesday followed by our shorter (~15-20 minutes) podblast on Friday taking a quick look at the intervening week’s worth of news and action. Feel free to jump around using the outline below.

Also make sure to add the RTC Podcast to your iTunes lineup so that you’ll automatically upload it on your listening device after each recording. Thanks!

0:00-2:30 – Duke’s great November.
2:30-4:20 – Why can’t there be more good games in December?
4:20-12:00 – Duke/Indiana/Michigan/Florida impressing the most early on.
12:00-17:30 – What’s wrong with UCLA?
17:30-21:30 – Can Kentucky rally for a third straight Final Four run?
21:30-26:15 – NC State leads the disappointments in the ACC.
26:15-29:15 – John Groce finds early success with Illinois.
29:15-31:45 – Minnesota another Big 10 surprise.
31:45-33:45 – Quick Big 10 power rankings.
33:45-35:50 – Back pats – what we got right in the preseason (Michigan/Ryan Harrow).
35:50-40:15 – Back tracks – what we got wrong (DeShaun Thomas/Tennessee).
40:15-45:00 – Weekend preview and wrap up.

We welcome any and all feedback on these podcasts including topics for future discussion or if you want to send us any questions for our “May Not Be From Actual Listeners” segment. Hit us up atrushthecourt@yahoo.com or @rushthecourt on Twitter.

Jonathan Reed is an RTC Correspondent. He can be reached found on Big Sky Basketball or on twitter @bigskybball. He filed this report after last night’s Colorado-Colorado State game in Boulder.

When Spencer Dinwiddie called Colorado State the “little brother” earlier in the week, he knew he would have to back up those comments on the court. He sure did that last night in Boulder. Dinwiddie finished with a career high 29 points on 8-10 shooting, and at times he was the Colorado offense, particularly in the second half when they got bogged down. Dinwiddie said after the game that his comment was, “an analogy used… I didn’t mean it in a disrespectful manner.” Still, Tad Boyle followed that up with, “I gotta talk to Spencer a little bit about that… [We] have to be a little smarter about how we talk to the media.” [He did say it with a smile on his face].  Whatever extra motivation that Dinwiddie’s comment might have given Colorado State, it was more than balanced out by the great crowd and atmosphere.

Spencer Dinwiddie Backed Up His Commentary Last Night (Daily Camera)

With both teams now relevant in college basketball — each went to the NCAA Tournament last season and is likely to return this year — the rivalry brought out even more passion and intensity than normal. The crowd was a record for the Coors Event Center, with an announced attendance of 11,708 people (capacity is supposedly 11,064), and they were outstanding all evening long. They brought energy for 40 minutes, even breaking out a “Little Brother” chant in the first half. Everything that makes college basketball great in a live environment was on display.

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David Changas (@dchangas) is an RTC correspondent. He filed this report from the Drexel-Tennessee State game tonight in Nashville.

Early in the 2011-12 season, Bruiser Flint’s Drexel Dragons got off to a woeful start, losing four of their first six before a remarkable finish led to a 29-7 record, the Colonial Athletic Association regular season championship and a run to the quarterfinals of the NIT. With nearly everyone returning from last year’s squad, the Dragons were touted as the odds-on favorite to repeat in the CAA, with their stiffest competition, VCU, having moved on to the Atlantic 10. Unfortunately for Flint, this season has started even worse than last year, as Drexel dropped to 2-6 after yet another disappointing loss, this time to a heretofore underachieving Tennessee State squad Tuesday in Nashville. The question surrounding this team is whether it can repeat last year’s turnaround.

Bruiser Flint’s Team Has Not Gotten Off to a Good Start This Season At All

Led by preseason CAA player of the year Frantz Massenat and sophomore guard Damion Lee, Drexel has a potent backcourt that can score consistently. In their third game of the season, though, the Dragons lost senior guard Chris Fouch, who was the team’s leading scorer in the early going (16.7 PPG). Fouch, who led the Dragons in scoring as a sophomore, appeared ready to return to that form after finishing fourth on last year’s team. “Chris brought a little more toughness to the team, which we miss a little bit,” Flint said. While Lee and Massenat are capable scorers, neither is particularly adept at creating his own shot. Massanat (4.7 APG) is a pass-first point guard who can penetrate and get to the basket, but, at times has trouble finishing, and can struggle against quick guards. Lee works hard to come off screens, but is not going to overwhelm defenders off the dribble. Moreover, Fouch was the team’s best three-point shooter, hitting nearly half of his 25 attempts through the team’s first three games. Without Fouch, the Dragons have made only 34% of their attempts from long range, with Lee shooting a paltry 28.9% from behind the arc.

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Bennet Hayes (@hoopstraveler) is an RTC correspondent. He filed this report after Tuesday night’s Georgia-Georgia Tech game in Atlanta.

When the college basketball season tipped off a month ago, Georgia and Georgia Tech found themselves facing similar expectations. Neither program appeared to be sporting a team capable of making the 2013 NCAA Tournament, but there was hope that both might be improved enough to escape the SEC and ACC cellars, respectively. While the 2-5 Dawgs had slogged their way through the season’s first month (with only wins over Jacksonville and East Tennessee State to brag about), early returns had been slightly more promising for the 5-2 Yellow Jackets, and Tuesday night’s rivalry game in Atlanta only served to further differentiate the Peach State’s two pre-eminent basketball programs.

Georgia Tech Appears to be Headed in the Right Direction (AP)

Mark Fox will surely write off Tuesday’s 62-54 loss as simply another missed opportunity for his team, but boy, this one seemed to resonate on levels far beyond tonight’s 40 minutes of hoops. Maybe that added significance stems from Brian Gregory running his record to 2-0 against Fox and Georgia in his short tenure in Atlanta. Or perhaps it’s due to the fact that, for the first time in 19 years, Tech has won back-to-back games against UGA. Or maybe, just maybe, this one matters more because Gregory seems to have the best Georgia high school basketball talent headed again to Georgia Tech — and far, far away from Athens. All those elements seemed to linger in the backdrop of this one, and the frenzied energy of the sellout crowd of 8,600 at the shiny, new (the three-game old kind of new) McCamish Pavilion drove home the largest message loud and clear — Gregory and Tech are seizing firm control of college basketball in Georgia.

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Nick Fasulo is an RTC correspondent who writes the column College Basketball By the Tweets, a look at the world of college hoops through the prism of everyone’s favorite social media platform. You can find him on Twitter @nickfasuloSBN.

When you’re a member of the loudest and polarizing fan base in college basketball, you have no choice but to accept ridicule from trolls high and low when things start to go sour. Kentucky, the defending national champion, is off to a bad start. Everybody knows this, and everybody wants everybody else to know this, too. To Twitter we go. Following Saturday’s loss to Baylor, the first L the Wildcats took in Rupp Arena in 55 games, our favorite social media platform has been a hub of negative sentiments pointed directly at Big Blue Nation (#BBN). The activity has become so pervasive and toxic that Wildcat players are one by one shutting the doors on their account until further notice.

[tweet https://twitter.com/MrsTylerKSR/status/275678981590773760]

My thought: This will either destroy or galvanize this young group of kids.

Louisville Leaves The Big East

Just 80 miles west of Lexington, the mood is bittersweet. On one hand, the Cardinals are without the services of their frontcourt anchor Gorgui Dieng for 4-6 weeks with a broken wrist. On the other, the school is the latest to ditch the Big East for the ACC, an addition to a short list of moves based more on basketball than football, and one that could serve as the tipping point in terms of a movement towards four (and not six) super-conferences.

An “A-C-C” chant has apparently broken out at the Louisville women’s basketball game vs. EKU tonight.

— Mark Ennis (@Mengus22) November 29, 2012

Seriously, is there a better rivalry in all of sports? Love the passive-aggressiveness here…

Louisville to join the ACC. Big step for them and good for our state.

— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) November 28, 2012

#Louisville in ACC also means that the school is no longer little brother to #UK in any sense. It’s in better academic company, in fact.

— Howard Fineman (@howardfineman) November 28, 2012

Josh Smith Leaves UCLA

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Michael James is the RTC correspondent for the Ivy League. He filed this report after Saturday’s game between Bucknell and Columbia.

They don’t yet make a stat for a Mike Muscala. Sure, 29 points and 18 rebounds hint at greatness, as does an offensive rating that continues to hover in the stratosphere. None of those can truly capture or quantify what Muscala did to Columbia last night. The Lions led by 17 points in the first half of a game that Bucknell would ultimate win by eight. While the points that the Bison’s 6’11″ senior scored played a huge role in avoiding the minor upset, it was the points that Columbia couldn’t score that mattered far more. Lions center Mark Cisco was dominant early, scoring all 10 of his points in the first half. Cisco’s failure to score after the intermission wasn’t necessarily the product of great defense from Muscala, but quite simply because it’s impossible to score points from the bench.

Mike Muscala is an Outstanding Patriot League Player But He and His Team is Overshadowed By Lehigh and CJ McCollum

That’s where the Bison big man sent Cisco with three fouls in the first half. Cisco’s backup Cory Osetkowski would join him in foul trouble early in the second. Then, undersized forward Zach En’Wezoh picked up three fouls in a five minute span while holding on to Muscala for dear life. Columbia guard Brian Barbour and forward Alex Rosenberg did their best to provide enough offense to stay in the game, but without the senior Cisco, the Lions were just weren’t the same squad. More than the points or the rebounds, it was that Muscala had made Columbia a completely different team that encapsulates the greatness of his impact. He is a match-up nightmare – too big for undersized fours and fives to guard and too quick for bigger, burlier post players. Inevitably, massive numbers of fouls follow, evidenced by Muscala ranking 17th nationally in fouls drawn last season according to Ken Pomeroy.

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Eli Linton is an RTC correspondent. He filed this report after Friday night’s SEC/Big East Challenge game from Fayetteville.

Everyone in Fayetteville, Arkansas, wanted this win tonight. They packed the Bud Walton Arena to the rafters, white out and all. They stood and gave their best “woo! Pig Sooie!” chant, got to the arena just a little bit earlier, and sang the fight song just a little bit louder. Even one of the parking attendants felt he needed to tell me how important this game was to the school. “We’re playing for all the marbles tonight.” He said when I pulled up (Yes, but can I park here?). But tonight, it didn’t matter how bad the Razorback fans wanted it, it wasn’t going to happen. For a team that prides itself in the slogan “fastest 40 minutes in basketball,” these 40 minutes turned out to be the longest of the year for Arkansas.

Syracuse Quieted the Hostile Crowd Assembled at Arkansas Friday Night

Syracuse fell behind briefly at the beginning of the game thanks to the hyped-up crowed and Mike Anderson’s energized Razorback squad, but the game quickly shifted into Orange hands as they slowed the tempo with a zone defense and a killer night from beyond the arc, mostly by the hands of senior James Southerland, who came off the bench to lead the Orange with a career high 35 points. Southerland was an unbelievable 9-13 from three, and he’s been having a career year to help boost the Orange to the no.6 ranking. Coming in to the game, all eyes were on sophomore Michael Carter-Williams, who leads Division I in assists per game and was second in steals. Carter-Williams did not disappoint, almost racking up a triple-double with 17 points, 10 rebounds, nine assists, and three steals.“He almost had a triple-double and I’m yelling at him. So he must be pretty good,” Jim Boeheim commented about Carter-Williams’ performance after the game.

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Who Won the Week? is a regular column that will outline and discuss three winners and losers from the previous week. The author of this column is Kenny Ocker (@KennyOcker), an Oregon-based sportswriter best known for his willingness to drive (or bike!) anywhere to watch a basketball game.

WINNER: Notre Dame

Heisman Trophy candidate and star linebacker Manti Te’o celebrates the Irish’s victory (Photo credit: US Presswire).

On top of emphatic wins over St. Francis and Chicago State, the Fighting Irish capped a three-win week with a 64-50 victory over reigning NCAA champion Kentucky for their 41st win in their last 42 games in South Bend. In what shouldn’t have been described as an upset — the Irish were 1.5 point favorites — Notre Dame held the Wildcats to 40 percent shooting from the field and managed to keep the pace of the game slow, making Kentucky grind out possessions as they put up their lowest-scoring game of the season by 18 points. In each of the Fighting Irish’s three games, senior forward Jack Cooley finished with a double-double, capped off with 13 points and 11 rebounds against the Wildcats. (Cooley has six double-doubles in eight games this season.) For a team that doesn’t play a true road game until the Big East schedule, Notre Dame needed to make a non-conference statement, and did so emphatically.

(Related winners: Cooley, the Big East. Related losers: Kentucky guard Ryan Harrow, who only played nine minutes in Thursday’s loss and may have already played himself out of John Calipari’s rotation.)

LOSER: UCLA

In the time since this column was last published, the Bruins have been a bastion of bad news on and off the court. They took an ugly loss to Cal Poly of the Big West at home at the newly renovated Pauley Pavilion (or is that Poly Pavilion now?), and then capped that off with the transfers of swingman Tyler Lamb and talented-but-overweight center Joshua Smith. Yes, the Bruins still have more talent than nearly every other team in the country, but it looks more and more like it can’t come together and play defense. After a few troubled years for coach Ben Howland, underachieving with the talent he has could spell the end of his tenure in Westwood.

(Related winners: Cal Poly; Lamb and Smith for escaping; point guard Larry Drew II, who has been thriving and will get an even better chance for success as the Bruins run the floor more. Related losers: Howland, UCLA fans.)

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The SEC/Big East Challenge tips off tonight with four games and will carry on throughout the weekend. The Big East microsite has you covered, with three reasons why each of its respective squads will win. As an added bonus, the SEC microsite counters with its own opinion on the Florida-Marquette game.

Three Reasons Why Notre Dame Will Win

1. Experience. There is no one in the country with functional vision that thinks the Fighting Irish can match up with the Wildcats athletically, but that’s the beauty of college basketball, having the best athletes and most pure talent do not always translate into victories. Where the Fighting Irish do have the distinct advantage is in the experience department. Almost everyone in coach Mike Brey’s seven-man rotation has played in high profile games like this with the exception of freshman Cameron Biedscheid. Heck, forward Scott Martin was probably playing in big-time college basketball games while some of Kentucky’s players were still adjusting to high school. The Wildcats will be a force to be reckoned with once they learn to play together, but they are still figuring that out, giving Notre Dame a window they need to take advantage of. If they can punch Kentucky in the mouth early, it may be difficult for the young Wildcats to re-organize and come back in the game.
2. Ryan Harrow’s Return. Technically the transfer’s return to the lineup after an undisclosed illness should be a boon for Kentucky. But, even though Harrow says he is ready, coach John Calipari has expressed concern about whether Harrow is up to game speed and it wouldn’t be surprising if his minutes were monitored closely. Fellow transfer Julius Mays and former walk-on Jarrod Polson have held their own in Harrow’s absence, but in the Wildcats’ loss to Duke, neither player made much of an impact at all. Notre Dame has a backcourt duo in Eric Atkins and Jerian Grant that can score in bunches and so look for the Fighting Irish to try and exploit their backcourt advantage by taking it to Harrow or his backups on both ends of the floor. There is little doubt that Atkins and Grant are going to get plenty of scoring looks tonight, and if they start knocking down their shots and attacking the rim at will, Kentucky is going to be in a lot of trouble.
3. They will play Mike Brey basketball. If you are interested in watching a style of basketball that is effective yet will offend all of your sensibilities, just watch the Fighting Irish on offense. Through six games, Brey’s club ranks #331 in adjusted tempo and anyone who is even remotely familiar with the Notre Dame coach knows that is pretty much par for the course. Kentucky has the athletic advantage and in the frontcourt, so they will be looking to run and force the issue offensively. By contrast, Notre Dame will only run if Brey falls asleep or gets kidnapped, and they will put a lot of effort into getting Kentucky out of its rhythm and making them play a slower pace than they want to. This strategy is ugly, but it has been proven effective time and time again as Brey has upset more talented teams by limiting their offensive opportunities and taking care of the basketball at all costs. This strategy may be particularly effective tonight because the young Wildcats may get frustrated by the languishing tempo, and the Fighting Irish have experienced guards and wings to run the offense patiently and effectively. The Irish have enough offensive weapons to hang with the Wildcats if the pace gets pushed, but if the game is played in the low 60s or high 50s, that will probably mean that Notre Dame has the Wildcats right where they want them.